


Sometimes, Life Just Is Like That [TM]

by OceanTheSoulRebel



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, I want more MFE content!, It's silly and I love it, Kinkade has things to say about the meta, Slice of Life, just a touch of crack, so mid-S7 or something, sometimes it just be how it is, takes place shortly after the Paladins return to Earth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-27 02:37:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20752946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OceanTheSoulRebel/pseuds/OceanTheSoulRebel
Summary: Or, "The MFE pilots remember that the Paladins, for all their experience, are really just children, too, and they don't know what to do with this knowledge."





	Sometimes, Life Just Is Like That [TM]

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Twitter user [@Romelluka](https://twitter.com/romelluka)'s tweets: 
> 
> 1) Keith, Lance, Hunk, James and Ina all went to space military BOARDING SCHOOL together for like at least 3 years. Nadia and Ryan, too, most likely even if not confirmed. There's so much potential for bullshit here. [[link](https://twitter.com/romelluka/status/1173665628915470336)]
> 
> 2) It's criminally underutilized that the famed paladins of Voltron are just like... people's ex classmate. They saw Lance put straws into his nose too far and being sent to the infirmary once. How does it Feel. [[link](https://twitter.com/romelluka/status/1173665931781951489)]

James feels the inexplicable urge to bang his head against any flat surface when he remembers going to school with any of their new best friends. Their partners in saving the planet, and, if they’re very, very lucky, the universe. 

The Paladins, save for Officer Shirogane, are no more than jumped up children. Sure, just like the MFEs, but at least the MFEs are the elite of the elite. The best the Garrison has to offer in the face of the Galra occupation. They see their fellow cadets being Powerful and Awe-Inspiring, and sure, the Earth needs that. They need the stability of a win against the Galra, and Voltron and its (their? How does one refer to a giant robot made up of slightly-less-giant robots?) Paladin pilots have that in spades. 

And yet Hunk Garrett, the famed Yellow Paladin, got written up for puking in the engine box of the simulator. Their whole class had to watch, and it even happened multiple times. James still can’t think of meatloaf the same way. 

Pidge Gunderson routinely downed the electrical system of the dorm’s entire second floor with some project or another. 

Lance McClain had once tripped over his feet and knocked a tooth out when he got distracted by a pretty classmate and needed to be driven into town for emergency dental work. It wasn’t the first time, or the last, that James had personally witnessed such buffoonery from him.

Keith Kogane got kicked out of the program entirely for an unnamed disciplinary infraction following the loss of the Persephone and the Kerberos mission, one that curiously coincided with Iverson taking a leave of absence to attend to a medical emergency. The rumor quickly grew that the two were related. All efforts to quash the idea only led to further cementing it as The Undisputed Truth into the collective hivemind of the student body.

And Officer Shirogane--James is _not_ going to call his superior officer ‘Shiro’, no matter how much he cajoled--was said to be routinely caught sneaking Kogane out of his dorms, but because it kept the cadet in relatively passive, attentive spirits, the write-ups rarely amounted to much more than slaps on the wrist.

These are your saviors, Earth. You’re welcome.

It’s going to give him an ulcer. 

The MFEs collectively clenched when they realized Pidge is Commander Holt's 16 (18? 19? No one is sure yet how to count the years in space. Earth years? But what about time dilation? And someone mentioned a space whale, whatever that is. “Don’t think about it” is James’ routine response to these thoughts.) year old daughter who's been missing now for four years. 

"How did we not realize Pidge Gunderson is Katie friggin' Holt?" Nadia grouses one morning, downing antacid tablets by the handful for breakfast when the news comes in that Colleen Holt is assaulting the Garrison head-on. “We were in classes with him! Er, her!” 

She squints vaguely in the Paladins’ direction. Some hapless cadet bursts into the mess hall and nearly bowls over in their rush to the Paladins. A few hushed words and Pidge--Katie, Nadia corrects herself--jolts ass over teakettle in extracting herself from the table. All of them are, save for the princess, who Nadia can hear exclaim, oh-so posh and regal and princessy, _“Oh, I’d love to meet your mother, Pidge! Surely we can stay for a moment?” _

Allura even claps regally. What a beautiful, princessy princess. God bless her and her glorious hair.

Ina holds the collective brain cell, so the MFEs all turn to her, bleary-eyed and expecting. She frowns into her oatmeal, considering.

"He--She--Pidge wasn't Katie Holt when we knew him," Ina finally offers. 

It’s as solid as anything they can comprehend at 0630. 

"He wasn't statistically likely to be her, given what information we had. There was only circumstantial evidence connecting Pidge Gunderson’s disappearance to Mrs. Holt’s missing person report." Ina's frown deepens. “I don’t recall reading if the report ever mentioned Pidge Gunderson as a known alias.” 

Nadia groans. She joins James in his misery and bangs her head against the table in the mess hall, uncaring of who sees. 

“That’s stupid,” Ryan mutters. “Mrs. Holt stormed a warpath through the Garrison the day they announced the failure of the Kerberos mission.” 

The other three MFEs make low noises of shared pain. That had been an exciting day for absolutely no one. Well, except perhaps Commander Iverson. And Admiral Sanda. And whatever poor, unfortunate soul got caught between the grieving widow and the institution that lost two of her three other family members. 

Ryan mentally walks himself through what he remembers of the series of events that had the Garrison on lockdown against talking to outside personnel. Even the students had to sign non-disclosure agreements, a move that had warranted many families to hasten plans to remove their students from the Garrison entirely in light of the scandal. 

He ultimately throws up his hands. “This is stupid! If this were a movie, it would be the most contrived plot ever. A mother doesn’t know her kid has snuck into the Garrison under a false name, and then when that kid goes missing, doesn’t make it absolute hell for anyone involved? Lazy writing.” 

“Not everything is a friggin' movie, Ryan.” Nadia’s words are muffled by the table, and she raises her finger to make her point. “Sometimes life just sucks.” 

“I’m just saying,” he says, watching the now empty paladin table as Mrs. Holt barges into the mess hall like a storm front, ferocious as a tornado and ten times as deadly. She looks ready to spit nails. 

She locks eyes on the MFE table--and Ryan specifically. Even Ina had the foresight to be busy focusing on her breakfast at Mrs. Holt’s entrance. Ryan quickly finds the table incredibly fascinating and decides to make it his life’s work to admire the wavey, out of fashion design that tessellates across its plastic surface. 

“I can’t believe this is my life,” James breathes. “I just… I’m a good person. I don’t deserve this.” 

It’s a sentiment they all groan in agreement. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I appreciate comments and kudos, and strive to answer them all! 
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr: [@Ocean-In-My-Rebel-Soul](https://ocean-in-my-rebel-soul.tumblr.com)  
Follow me on Twitter: [@OceanSoulRebel](https://twitter.com/Ocean_SoulRebel)


End file.
